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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

I'm also having giveaways for The Game Called Revolution (https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/created_by/17761797) and The Revolution Beyond Time (https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/120758-the-revolution-beyond-time). Both copies are signed by yours truly.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Here's more Incident 27 goodness for you to gobble up, courtesy of yours truly. Again, I don't recommend reading this if you haven't read God School, as it contains spoilers. With that being said, please enjoy this work in progress.

The following morning, Ev met Maya in
the hangar. The cavernous room was primarily used for storage, but every so
often they cleared the floor to make room for airplanes which the faculty
members created using their highly advanced conjuring skills.

Brandon
and Freya were just finishing creating a large passenger plane when Ev arrived.
It was an amazing thing to see in action. The various pieces of the massive
vehicle simply materialized out of thin air, like reverse-disintegration.

As
usual, once it was completed, Brandon and Freya dropped to their knees,
exhausted. Even for veteran gods, the process was very taxing. They always
recovered fairly quickly, though.

When
Brandon saw Ev and Maya, he made a grand gesture to the newly-created plane and
said, “All aboard for Morovia.” Throughout the day the gods would be creating
various planes and taking students to each continent where they would then make
separate arrangements to go wherever they were headed. This particular plane
would be going to Ev’s homeland, the crescent-shaped continent Morovia, home of
the great metropolis Seraphim City.

Freya
got back to her feet. “Our pleasure, Ev. I’m just glad we don’t do this every
day.” Usually the Academy just had to ferry one or two students to and from Mt.
Orleia. In such cases, they employed small sleighs pulled by otherworldly
tigers Freya summoned from her chest. Ev still had no idea where those cats
came from.

“Good—I’m
not too late.”

Ev
and Maya turned. Jaysin was standing there. “What are you doing here?” Ev asked
him. “Your plane doesn’t leave for another hour.” Jaysin was going back to his
homeland of Chrichton.

“Hey,
no worries. I didn’t mean nothing by it. Just having a poke at my friends,
that’s all.”

Ev
laughed. “You’re all heart, Jaysin.”

Jaysin
shrugged. “I try.”

From
behind them, Brandon coughed. “Sorry to interrupt, but everyone else has
finished boarding the plane.”

“Looks
like it’s time to go,” Ev said.

“Take
care, Ev,” Jaysin replied.

“You,
too.”

Jaysin
then added, “You take care as well, Maya.”

Without
turning around, she said, “Same to you, Jaysin.”

* * *

They boarded the plane, and by the
afternoon, they had arrived at Seraphim City International Airport. Ev couldn’t
help but be reminded of the last time he had been at a major airport. That was
in Stiftung. Belial had just unleashed the Nephilim into the city, and the
students, who were on a field trip, had to fight their way back to the airport
in order to get on their plane and escape. Unfortunately, they had to overtake
another plane—also attempting to escape—which ended up being destroyed by a
Nephilim. At the time, Brandon and Freya justified the sacrifice by saying they
had to get back to the Academy to summon reinforcements to fight the angelic
giants. On a purely logical level, Ev agreed, but that incident still haunted
him. Seeing all those people go up in flames only a few feet away was something
he would never forget. It seemed it was his fate to take part in the deaths of
others.

“Ev?
You OK?”

He
snapped out of it and looked around. They were walking through the terminal,
and Maya was attempting to talk to him. “Yeah. Sorry. I was just remembering
our escape from Stiftung. Oh, wait—you weren’t with us.” In fact, Maya had gone
over to Belial’s side after shooting her friends with arrows. They had had to
flee Stiftung without her.

“No,”
she said. “I guess I wasn’t.” She went quiet. She deeply regretted her actions,
but no amount of apologizing would ever undo them. Both of them simply had to
live with the things they’d done.

He
took her hand. “It’s OK. As long as we’re here for each other, we can keep
moving forward.”

“Thank
you, Ev.”

They
said their goodbye to Brandon and Freya and headed to another terminal. From
there, they would catch another plane to another airport further to the south.

* * *

After another hour of flight, their
plane landed in Grantz Municipal Airport about forty-five minutes outside Ev’s
hometown of Upton. They took a cab the rest of the way, and before long they
were in Upton.

The
cab drove them through town, up Main Street, past a collection of businesses
that comprised downtown Upton. Here and there were parks with walking trails,
nice-looking playground equipment and dilapidated buildings—a study in
contrasts. Some of the tax money was spent well, and some of it wasn’t.

They
went past Upton Middle School, which was three large white buildings built
side-by-side. Each building housed a different grade. One of Ev’s few fond
memories of growing up was attending here. He had loved school, mostly because
he didn’t have to fear his father during the day.

Behind
the middle school they entered a neighborhood. It was strictly a middle-class
residential area, not too rich and not too poor. The Bannen family probably
would have made more money if Ev’s father had let his wife work full-time. But
no, he (violently) insisted the bulk of her life be dedicated to serving him.

They
came to a brick one-story house at the end of the block with a two-car garage.
As it was when Ev had grown up here, nothing about it stood out at all. The
lawn was well-maintained by a man Ev’s mother periodically hired. You’d never
know this house had once been the site of constant fear and, ultimately, a
gruesome death.

Ev
paid the driver and they strolled up to the house. He rang the doorbell. A
middle-aged woman with fading brown hair answered. “Ev! It’s so good to see you
again!”

They
hugged. “It’s good to see you, too, Mom.”

“Come
inside,” she said to the two of them.

When
his mother had shut the door behind them, Ev said, “Mom, I want you to meet
a…uh…special friend of mine. This is Maya Brünhart. Maya, this is Anni Bannen.”

The
two women shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” Maya said.

“My
son has a girlfriend!” Anni exclaimed happily.

Ev
was suddenly embarrassed. “Well…that’s…I guess…”

“It’s
OK, Ev,” Maya said. She turned her attention back to his mother. “We’re still
feeling things out.”

Anni
nodded. “I understand. It was the same way with…” Her mood abruptly darkened.
She was going to say, It was the same way
with Dom and me. But that would have been a load of crap. Ev had long ago
vowed never to resemble his father in any way, shape or form. “Never mind. It’s
not important. Please, have a seat, you two. We have so much to talk about.”

Ev
and Maya sat down on the couch in front of the TV. Anni retreated into the
kitchen. Maya looked around and said, “There aren’t any pictures of your
father. That’s no surprise, I guess.”

Indeed
there weren’t. There were photos of Ev and his mother which varied in age.
There were photos of baby Ev, middle-school Ev, high school Ev, young Anni and
present-day Anni. But there were absolutely no pictures of Dom Bannen. Ev
explained, “After he died, he burned every last scrap of his existence. He
never deserved to exist in the first place.”

Anni
returned from the kitchen with sodas which she offered to Ev and Maya. She then
pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them. “I’m sorry my husband isn’t
here to meet you, Maya, but he ran off years ago—”

“Mom,”
Ev interjected. “She knows.”

“Oh.”
Anni’s face was melancholy. “I’m sorry you had to be burdened with that
knowledge, Maya.”

But
Maya said, “It’s OK, Anni. Ev felt he could tell me because I told him my dark secret. We found one another
because he both had similar experiences.”

That
seemed to satisfy Ev’s mother. “Well, I won’t ask you what you’ve been through. People have a right to their privacy, after
all. Still, I will never forgive myself for what happened.”

“It
wasn’t your fault,” Maya said.

“But
it was. Poor Ev lived in constant
fear because I was too weak to do anything. I kept telling myself Dom would
change, that he would eventually see the light and stop abusing us. I was such
a fool. And then came the night where he actually decided to kill me. I was so
scared, I couldn’t move. Because of that, Ev had to do the unthinkable, the
thing no child should ever have to do. It’s my fault he has to live with that
for the rest of his life.”

She
was in tears now. Ev went over to comfort her.

* * *

After Anni had calmed down, Ev returned
to his place on the couch beside Maya. “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

“No,
it’s OK. You have a right to be human. That’s something I didn’t learn until
last year,” Maya said.

Anni
smiled approvingly at her. “Thank you, Maya. I can tell you’re a good match for
Ev.

“Let’s
change the subject, shall we? Tell me about this university. You suddenly ran
off to it, and I never really got the details. To tell the truth, I’ve been so
worried, wondering if you chose a good school.”

Ev
sighed. He had not been looking forward to this. He didn’t know how she would
react when he revealed the truth. Nevertheless, he decided it needed to be
done. “Mom, were you following the news last year when that evil god took over
Stiftung in the Murnau Islands?”

“Of
course I was. It was unbelievable, really; a real, live god who isn’t Bethos!
But what does this have to do with your college?”

Ev
told her everything, starting with how he had been saved from refghasts by
Brandon Strong, to his sudden enrollment in Divine Protector University, to
their field trip to Stiftung and the subsequent attack by Belial, to their
journey through the Tower of Babel. Anni stared at him, dumbstruck. Finally,
she said, “I think I need to lay down for a bit. This is a lot to take in.”

“Sure,
Mom. I understand.” But did Mom
understand? Could she accept the reality of her son as a god-in-training? Only
time would tell, he supposed.

* * *

In the backyard, Ev and Maya stared at
the indistinct patch of grass. It looked no different than the rest of the
grass. “This is it,” Ev said.

“This
is where you buried him?”

“Yeah.
Luckily it happened at night, so were able to dig up the grass without anyone
seeing us. I still see it clearly when I close my eyes. His blood was on my
hands and I was going crazy with fear. I had just killed my father. I had taken
a life. I knew what it was like to be a killer. For the love of Bethos, I was
eight!”

Maya
put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, Ev. There was
nothing else you could have done. If you hadn’t done it, your mother would have
been the one to die, and your father would have been the one to live. I’d say
that’s an even worse scenario. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yeah.
It definitely would have been. Still, it doesn’t change what I went through. It
doesn’t change what I go through every single day.”

She
squeezed his hand. “But you don’t go through it alone, Ev. And you never will again.”

Despite
(or because of) everything, he smiled. She was right. He wasn’t alone anymore.

* * *

Captain Arnold Schmitz stood on the deck
of the DRM Blitzkrieg, one of several
destroyers stationed at the giant tower which had appeared off the coast of
Stiftung last year during the attack by the sinister stranger who called
himself Belial. He claimed to have been a god, and with everything he was able
to do, few doubted him. Having grown up in an atheist home, Schmitz had never
been very religious, and still didn’t know what to make of Belial. It was
certainly difficult to argue with what his eyes saw. After all, Belial had
summoned angelic giants to terrorize the people of Stiftung. And if that wasn’t
bad enough, he also had called down this behemoth of a tower. What exactly it
was or what might be inside, no one knew. Not long after Belial went inside,
three mysterious individuals were seen flying up from the depths (apparently,
the tower’s entrance was underwater). When the Murnau military sent divers down
there, however, they reported finding no means of entry. The only conclusion to
be drawn was that there had to be a secret method of entering the structure,
but so far no one had been able to find it. Schmitz and his crew tried using a
blow torch to cut a hole inside, but that didn’t even make a scratch on
whatever material the tower was made of. Ditto for D5 explosive charges. Next
they tried shelling the place with the destroyer’s guns, but that produced no
results as well.

Thus
they could not get inside. With that being the case, the Murnau government
decided to bow to mounting pressure from other governments to allow them access
to the site; they had nothing to lose at this point. Therefore, the Blitzkrieg was now part of a joint
operation to study the tower and prevent any unauthorized entry. Of course,
Schmitz suspected his superiors would be secretly pleased if someone could get
the damn thing open.

So,
with nothing to really do, he just stood there on the deck, staring at the
tower in the vain hope it would reveal its secrets to him. There was full cloud
cover overhead, and it looked like it might rain. Schmitz hoped it would. At
least then something would be
happening. This was incredibly boring.

Suddenly,
a private ran up to him. “Kapitän!
Radar is picking up a high-speed object heading this way from the east.”

Well,
that was something, at least. “How big?”

“About
the size of a missile.”

Could
one of the other countries be launching an attack on the site to gain control
of the tower? That, he could not allow. “Are we sure its not one of ours?”

“Positive,
Kapitän. Central Command has nothing in the air.”

Schmitz
ran to the bridge. He told his first officer, Friedrick Gastoff, “As soon as we
confirm the unknown object isn’t nuclear, I want it blown out of the sky.”

Gastoff
looked worried. “And if it is
nuclear?”

They
both knew the answer to that question. If it was a nuke, they would wait for it
to pass by the major population areas and then destroy it over the ocean.
Unfortunately, they would likely get caught in the explosion, as close as they
were to Stiftung.

But
Schmitz just said, “Tell me when we have confirmation.”

A
few minute later, one of the officers on the bridge announced he now had a
clear radar return. Schmitz asked if it was a known nuke type. The radar
operator shook his head nervously. “I don’t think it’s a nuke. It doesn’t even
look like a missile.”

What
the hell was that supposed to mean? “What does it look like?”

The
operator hesitated for a moment. “A person.”

“A
what?”

“Take
a look sir. Two arms, two legs.”

Schimitz
studied the display. The unknown did indeed resemble a human being. And it was
coming in even faster than a missile. He had a sickening feeling the events of
last year were about to be repeated. He had to prevent that at all costs.
“Shoot it down.”

Gastoff
nodded. The object had been close enough to lock onto for quite some time, but
they hadn’t fired for fear of unleashing a nuclear holocaust. Now, though, they
locked on and fire away with every non-nuclear missile they had. Schmitz wanted
that thing shot down, but not bad enough to utilize the final option. If he was
wrong, a finished career would be the worst of his worries.

The
Blitzkrieg unloaded a volley of
warheads at the unknown. After thirty seconds, a series of explosions lit up
the eastern sky. “Did we get it?” Schmitz asked.

His
hopes were high that they had just ended a threat before it could begin.
However, movement in the direction of the smoke cut that hope short. The thing
was still coming in, and fast.

He
ran out onto the deck for a better look. It was almost upon them, now, and
Schmitz could see it was, in fact, a person. It had to be another of those gods
(or whatever they were) flying in to do who-knew-what.

The
dark blur slammed into the hull of the Blitzkrieg,
and the ship rocked from the impact. The whole thing tipped sideways as water
rushed into the punctured vessel. Schmitz grabbed onto the railing to keep from
falling off. Aboard the bridge, Gastoff was shouting for all hands to evacuate.

The
Tru Republic’s ship, Emerald Valiance,
pulled up alongside them. “D’ye be needin’ assistance, Blitzkrieg?” one of their officers asked in their sing-song accent.

Schmitz
thought about it for a moment. “It depends on how bad the damage is. For now,
you should keep an eye out for the guy that hit us.”

“Oh,
it was a guy now, was it? Didn’t realize you could be taken out so easily.”

“This
is not the time for jokes. Those gods—or whatever the hell they are—are back.
He’s probably going for the entrance to the tower. You’ve got to do whatever it
takes to stop him.”

If
they failed, Bethos only knew what would happen.

* * *

From miles away, on a deserted building
in Stiftung harbor, Heimdall watched the events unfold. A fellow god just
crashed through a Murnau ship standing guard at the Tower. Heimdall knew almost
all of the players in this game, but he didn’t recognize the man that had now
put his token in.

Following
the Stiftung Crisis, Bethos had stationed Heimdall here to watch over the Tower
in case someone tried to enter. Evidently the Blood Key was still out there
somewhere and could be used to open the entrance. As the god with the greatest
eyesight, Heimdall was the logical choice.

He
gritted his gold teeth nervously and contacted Bethos via telepathy. Someone’s trying to get into the Tower. He’s
making an unnecessary mess of things.

Bethos
responded, I’m sending reinforcements.
Wait until they arrive. Don’t try taking them on by yourself.

By the time they arrive, it might be too
late. If this person has the Blood Key, we can’t afford to wait.

Don’t do it. Wait for reinforcements.
And with that, Bethos was gone.

Heimdall
stood up. He knew what he had to do. Orders or no, he wasn’t able to wait
around while some unknown god made his way into the Tower of Babel and helped
himself to all the goodies inside. The most dangerous weapons on the planet
were stored in there, and a twisted mind could do almost anything with them.

And
there were plenty of twisted minds in Zero Grade.

Heimdall
launched himself off the building and towards the Tower.

* * *

The three of them once again sat down in
the living room. Ev’s mother had suitably recovered from the shock of his
revelations and was now willing to talk about it. “It’s certainly a lot to take
in,” she said.

Ev
nodded. “I know. Think of how much it was for me to take in, being the one who had to go through it all.

“But
at the same time,” Anni said, “I’m so proud of you. My son, a god! Not only
that, but you fought to save the world.”

He
looked away, sheepishly. “Well, I really didn’t do that much to help Professor
Strong…”

But
Maya said, “That’s not true, Ev. You distracted Belial long enough for
Professor Strong to pull the spear out of his chest and hurl it at him,
piercing him in the heart and killing him.”

“And
what was your role in this?” Anni
asked her inquisitively.

Maya
squirmed, afraid to admit the truth of her involvement. Ev decided to help her
out by telling his mother the truth. “Maya was by my side at the time. She
healed me after Belial struck me with lightning.”

Anni
rushed over and took Maya’s hand. “Thank you so, so much for everything you’ve
done for Ev. He’s so, so lucky to have someone like you in his life. He’d be
dead if not for you.”

Looking
uncomfortable, Maya averted her gaze. She was clearly tempted to admit the
truth, that she was the one who had put Ev in so much danger in the first
place. “Please, Misses Bannen—”

“Call
me Anni.”

“Please,
Anni. I really didn’t do that much. Ev’s done so much more for me than I’ve
done for him.”

“Really?
Like what?”

Before
Maya could say what she was thinking, Ev intervened. “I just helped her out
with some things. No big deal.”

Perhaps
sensing she was wading into sensitive waters, Anni backed off. “Well, I won’t
pry. I’m just glad you two are there for one another. I worried about Ev for
years, but I now I think he’s going to be OK…”

His
mother’s words were droned out by a ringing in their ears. It was Freya. Attention, all students of Divine Protector
Academy currently on leave. An emergency has been declared. Everyone is hereby
instructed to return to the Academy immediately.

They returned to the plane. A bunch of
students were crowding in and around the cockpit, pressuring Brandon to tell
them what the emergency was. He danced around the question as best he could. “I
don’t know all the details. You’ll find out once we get back to the Academy. I
can’t tell you any more than that.” The students pressured him further, but he
kicked them out of the cockpit, telling them to take their seats.

Ev
and Maya took theirs. “I wonder if the Nephilim really are back,” Ev said.

“But
who could be controlling them? Belial’s dead.”

“Maybe,
but he used that Blood Key to control them. It disappeared when he died.
Professor Strong was evasive when I asked him what happened to it. What if
someone else now has it?”

Her
face grew clouded with worry. “That would be a very bad scenario, Ev. Whoever
controls the Key controls not only the Nephilim, but the Tower of Babel as
well. You saw just a few of the dangerous Artifacts stored in there. They
nearly killed you and Professor Strong.”

“Yeah,
but we survived.”

“But
rumor has it on the top floor is the most dangerous Artifact of all. It makes
all the others look like toys.”

“I
wouldn’t put too much stock in rumors, Maya. And even if it’s true, Professor
Strong told me it takes time to unlock the most dangerous ones. The Academy
won’t simply let some lunatic make off with them.”

She
looked out the window of the plane. “I hope you’re right, Ev.”

* * *

Heimdall materialized from the Bifrost
into another chamber. The Bifrost—or Rainbow Bridge—was a system which enabled
quick transport throughout the Tower of Babel. Normally one had to fight the
skeleton Keepers to get to it, but Brandon and Ev Bannen had destroyed them
during their fight through the Tower last year. Heimdall considered that very
fortunate; he didn’t have to waste time facing the Tower’s defenses. He simply
stepped into the multi-colored wall and willed it to take him to where the
intruder had gone.

However,
upon materializing, Heimdall’s eyes went wide as he realized where he was.
Unlike the other chambers of the Tower, the floors, wall, and ceiling were a pure
white color. Large wooden crosses lined the circular wall. No doubt about it;
this was the top floor and home to the most dangerous Artifact of all.

He
cursed inwardly. He had allowed himself to be distracted. He needed to find the
intruder, and fast. He could be anywhere.

Suddenly,
his chest exploded. A magnificent spear had impaled him from behind. A torrent
of blood burst forth, drenching the floor in crimson. Heimdall hacked up the
stuff.

“Hope
you don’t mind me using Gungnir,” someone said behind him.

With
tremendous effort, Heimdall turned around to see his attacker. It was the same
man who had struck the Murnau destroyer. “Bastard. Who…are you?” He struggled
to talk despite all the blood filling his throat.

“Sorry
to do this to you,” the man said casually. “It’s necessary. But don’t worry;
I’ll bring you back later. Maybe.

“Of
course I do. Wouldn’t you, if you had the chance?” He didn’t seem to have a
care in the world, no understanding of what he was doing.

“D-Don’t.”

“It’s
a bit too late for that. For me, there’s no turning back now. A new world
awaits. A better world.”

“Not…better…”

“Hmph.
I disagree. This world’s a failure, just like all the others. I’m going to end
it.” But Heimdall did something surprising, even to himself. He laughed.
“What’s so funny?”

“Just…remembered—urk.
Can’t…use… it…even if…you—urk—want to.”

“Yeah,
I guess you’re right. I can’t use it.
Not here, at least. I’ll have to move it.

“I
gotta say, you’re a lot tougher than I thought you’d be. I pierced you through
the heart, and you’re still not dead. I wanted to give you a quick death, which
is why I did it. I guess I’ll have to try again.”

The
spear was ripped from Heimdall’s chest, and everything abruptly went dark. The
Norse god knew no more.

Friday, December 26, 2014

This week I decided to review Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn:
Specter of the Past by Timothy Zahn. The story focuses on multiple fronts.
Pellaeon, the Supreme Commander of what is left of the Imperial Starfleet, begins
launching an effort to secure peace with the New Republic in hopes of saving
what is left of the Empire after a war game to test a new piece of Imperial military
hardware fails. Meanwhile, with the Empire seemingly no longer a threat, many New
Republic worlds are picking up where old grudges from before the Empire was
established were left off. Han, Luke, and Chewbacca attempt to mediate a
disagreement over merchant vessel security between two long- feuding governments, but Han soon realizes there is an impending pirate attack heading for the
system they are in which is a major trade hub. The trio race to intercept the
attack, but during the battle, Luke is certain that he senses clone crew aboard
one of the pirate vessels. And Leia, who is taking a vacation, happens to be on
hand when a partial copy of the Caamas Document, which reveals that the world
of Caamas--which was devastated in the aftermath of the Clone Wars--was attacked
on Palpatine’s order, an attack that was aided by a team of Bothans sabotaging
the planet’s shields. But the damaged document doesn’t identify the Bothans who committed
the sabotage, and when news of this discovery hits, many Republic worlds begin
calling for the Bothans to pay reparations to the surviving Caamasi, while
others call for withholding punishment until the Bothans responsible can be
identified, and yet more begin using the debate as new focus in old feuds with their
neighbors. When news of this reaches the Empire, a renegade Imperial Moff, a
former Royal Guardsman, and a con artist impersonating the long dead Grand
Admiral Thrawn, who wish to keep the war going and destroy the New Republic, begin carrying out a plot to use the Caamas crisis to trigger a full scale New
Republic civil war. Luke’s quest to hunt down the pirates leads him to one of
their bases, but he narrowly escapes a pirate trap and is rescued by Mara Jade.
Soon after parting company, Mara arrives at the Errant Venture, a privately owned
Star Destroyer and mobile trading hub to meet her boss Talon Karrde. But their
meeting is interrupted by an unidentified fighter of unknown design
broadcasting a message including Grand Admiral Thrawn’s rarely known full name.
She sets out to investigate the ship, but Luke soon has a vision of her unconscious
or dead, and after a meeting with Talon, Leia, Han, and Lando Calrissian he sets
out to find her while Talon sets out to meet an old contact he would rather not
see again in hopes of finding an intact copy of the Caamas Document. And Admiral
Pellaeon, unaware that the aide sent to contact the New Republic was captured
by Pro-War Imperial forces after only being able to send a garbled transmission
to his destination, finds himself under attack by an apparent Corellian task
force.

I give this book a 9 out of 10. It includes enough battles,
and they are detailed enough to be entertaining. I loved how some of he craft from one of my favorite adventures from the old RPG played a major role in the story, and its nice to see Star Wars authors who actually pay attention to such material because so much of the base the earlier novels drew from came from such sources. The political maneuvering and
plotting is realistic, and it definitely does a good job of wetting the reader’s
appetite for part two. However there were a few scenes which seemed to have
little impact on the overall plot, and I question how much sense some plot
points make.

Monday, December 22, 2014

God School just came out, but I'm already looking to the future with the sequel, Incident 27. So without further ado, here's the first chapter to tantalize you. Sorry about the formatting; Microsoft Word 2003 doesn't fully translate well to Blogger.

Oh, and I'd wait to read this if you haven't finished God School yet, as it contains spoilers.

Chapter I

Hor 22 of 3022 NY (Narska Year)

Ev Bannen looked down at the emaciated
shell before him. The withered thing could barely be called human at this
point. It was mostly bones and long, white stringy hair. She couldn’t even
breathe on her own. What are you feeling right now, Ev?
Freya asked via telepathy. The blonde goddess stood next to him, her radiant
curls a stark contrast to the corpse-like figure lying on the bed.

Sadness. I guess. This might be the most
depressing thing I’ve ever seen. Unlike Freya, he was merely a student at Divine
Protector Academy, a secret school that trained people with certain potential
to become gods. As one of his professors—and a full god—Freya had accompanied
him here to this nursing home today. They weren’t physically here, though;
Freya had used her powers to astral-project them from the Academy’s Prayer
Chamber. Nevertheless, their business here was deadly serious.

Take a good look, Ev. Remember when we told
you gods had the responsibility of choosing when it’s someone’s time? For this
woman, that time is now. She proceeded to read off what she knew about the
elderly woman they had come to see. Nora
Clark. Age ninety-three. Permanently hooked up to a respirator. No chance for
recovery. This is it for her. She’s lived her life and it was a good one.
Married twice, had four kids, twice as many grandkids, and lots of close
friends. She had a successful career as a school principal. But that’s all over
now. Do you understand?

Ev
nodded solemnly. He hadn’t been looking forward to this, and now that he was
here, he was scared to death.

She
perhaps sensed his doubts. This isn’t
murder, Ev. There’s no quality of life for Nora anymore. We’re here to give her
the peace she deserves. This is the ultimate mercy.

That
all made sense to him. Still... It
doesn’t feel right to me. Killing her, just like that. He snapped his
fingers.

I share your distaste. But we’re gods. We
have a responsibility.

He sighed. Let’s just get it over
with.

Freya
held out her hand. A dark glow radiated
from her palm. Watch closely. This is the
opposite of what we use to heal people. It saps the subject’s energy,
gradually, until they die. So gradually, there’s no pain. But we can only do it
on someone who is in a catatonic state or otherwise unconscious. And we must
make absolutely certain there’s no chance they will ever recover before we do
it.

She
laid her palm on the elderly woman’s chest. The dark energy spread out over
Nora Clark’s upper body.

The
machine next to Nora’s bed began registering her weakening life signs. After
about thirty seconds an alarm went off, signaling to the nurses something was
seriously wrong. They soon rushed into the room, but Ev and Freya weren’t
really there and so the nurses could neither see nor interact with them.

After
another minute all her vital signs were at zero. Nora Clark, who had lived a rich
and fulfilling life, was dead. The nurses attempted resuscitation, but to no
avail.

Ev knew Freya was
right. This was the best thing they could have done for her. Still, the
memories of the night he had killed his father weighed heavily upon him. Dom Bannen
had been a violent bastard, and one night he had decided to do away with Ev’s
mother once and for all. Ev did the only thing he could think of to stop him.
He grabbed a knife off the table and stabbed him in the side. His father went
down in a pool of blood. Ev Bannen had become a killer that night, and that was
something you could never undo.

They
returned to their bodies in the Prayer Chamber. Freya asked, “Do you understand
now?”

He
nodded. “Yeah. It’s a necessary evil.”

“Exactly.
We don’t want to do it, but someone has to.”

“I
just wish that someone didn’t have to be us.”

“It
wasn’t always this way,” she explained. “The shinigamis used to be ones
responsible for ending the lives of mortals.”

He
cocked an inquisitive eybrow. “Shinigami? The god that worked for Zero Grade?” Zero
Grade was the organization of rebellious gods that had long been at odds with
the Academy.

“His
name wasn’t originally Shinigami. There used to be a whole clan of
shinigamis—the gods of death. However, almost all of them died out in the last
great war. The last surviving member took on the name Shinigami in order to
honor them.”

“But
then, why did he join Zero Grade?”

“Let’s
just say it was personal. It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. The
past should be left where it is.

“Now,
then. I have work to grade. I’ll see you later.”

Out
in the hallway, Ev met up with his kinda-sorta girlfriend, Maya Brünhart. As
usual, she wore a white sweater to hide the scars on her arm where she used to
cut herself. Her dark bangs still had a bad habit of covering up her beautiful
face. “Hey, Ev. How did it go?”

He
shrugged. “About as well as can be expected. I’d be a horrible liar if I said I
enjoyed it.”

She
smiled at him. “And I wouldn’t find that a bit funny. We both know you’re too
good of a person to take pleasure in death.”

They
had met during their first year at Divine Protector Academy. Ev had taken an
instant liking to Maya. No one knew it at the time, but she was actually a
double-agent for the vile god Belial. Belial had rescued her from the streets
of Stiftung, the capital of the Murnau Islands, and helped her awaken to her
god-powers. After that, he had her infiltrate the Academy as his spy. Her
mission was to lure a number of students into an ambush so Belial could collect
their blood and open portals to the dark realm of Gehenna and release the race
of giants known as the Nephilim. The Nephilim wreaked havoc in Stiftung before
the Ev and the rest of the Academy stopped them and put a permanent end to
Belial. Ev was just happy he had been able to achieve his true goal—to save
Maya and bring her back to the Academy. Since then, they had been incredibly
close. Ev hadn’t actually asked her out; to them, it was simply an unspoken
understanding.

“So,
have you thought about what I asked you?” he said.

“You
mean, about going to your house for Lorntz Break and meeting your mother?”
Lorntz Break was the mid-year week where students were able to go wherever they
wanted and not have to worry about classes.

“Yeah.
What do you think?”

“Sure.
I’d love to. I mean…” her mood darkened for a moment. “It’s not like I have any
other family to visit.”

Ev
gently stroked her cheek. “Hey, hey, hey. No more of that, OK? You’re not alone
anymore. I want you to be happy.”

Her
smile returned. “You always know what to say to cheer me up. You’re right; I’m
not alone anymore. I have friends now and people who care about me. I
appreciate you reminding me of that.”

“You’re
very wel…uh-oh. Here come the Asshole Three.”

A
trio of upperclassmen came striding confidently over. They were the absolute
best of their class, and always wanted everyone to know it. They took their
status as elite students so seriously, in fact, they made their own school
uniforms (even though the Academy had no such thing). Their uniforms were dark
like their souls, with matching, ties, vests and pants. They called themselves
the Awesome Three, but very few people used that name.

“Well,
well, look who it is: Maya Brünhart, the Divine Protector Traitor.” Jorg
Trident had closely-cropped black hair and skin only a mother could love. It
was widely believed that before enrolling at the Academy, he had been in a fire
and received skin grafts from someone who was of a considerably darker
complexion than himself. In any event, larges patches of his arms, face and
neck didn’t match.

“The
woman, feigning goodness, blights the land she travels.” Relm Masters was the
highest-ranked student, even in his own class. He loved more than anything to
remind others how intelligent and cultured he perceived himself to be, and that
meant speaking in prose. He had stylish red glasses and copper-colored hair.

“Seriously,
why does the Academy keep you
around?” Priscilia Elipsen was the only female in the trio. As such, her
uniform had a skirt. Her beautiful silver hair was bobbed-up in the back.

These
three lived to make Ev’s blood boil. “Why don’t you three piss off,” he
suggested.

“We
have every right to be upset with the Traitor,” Jorg argued.

“That’s
right,” Priscilia said. “Because of her, mankind was almost brought to its
knees. She should be in prison somewhere. Too bad there isn’t a prison for
gods.”

The
Asshole Three continued on, laughing at Maya and Ev’s expense. Jorg said over
his shoulder, “You should kick her to the curb, Bannen. You’ll be a lot better
off.”

“Don’t
mind them,” Maya said. It was obvious, though, that she did mind. Their words cut her to the bone, all because they were
true. She had done everything she was accused of. Both she and Ev had committed
crimes they could not make right.

Still,
that didn’t mean the world should continue to make her suffer for it. “Those
guys don’t know what they’re talking about. They didn’t even step foot in
Stiftung during the Crisis.”

“We
have to face the truth, Ev. Professor Strong said there would be consequences
for my actions. People can’t simply forget what I did.”

But
Ev wasn’t buying it. “Why can’t they see what a good person you are? If they
just got to know you…” He didn’t finish that thought. Even he could see the
absurdity of what he had just said. After what Maya had done, who would want to get to know her?”

Nevertheless,
Maya did have friends, including…

“Maya!”
Great timing, Ev thought. CiCi Decker came over and gave Maya a hug. “I just
saw those upperclassmen giving you a hard time. You want me to go kick their
asses for you?” Her pink pigtails were her most distinguishing feature.

Maya
perked up, shook her head. “That’s OK. I’m just glad I have friends like you to
look out for me.”

“Hey
guys.” Deep Matthews and Sahara Aloto came over to join them. They were
first-year students, having enrolled at the Academy following the Stiftung
Crisis. Deep was a black youth with a shaved head, while Sahara was white with
long auburn hair.

“How’s
it going?” Ev asked them.

“Great,”
Deep said. “I love it here at the Academy.”

Sahara
concurred. “Everyone’s so nice here, and we’re accomplishing far more than we
ever would have at a school for mere mortals.”

“Have
you given any thought to what kind of gods you want to be?” Maya asked.

Deep
replied, “Not yet. We really just started, after all.”

“Don’t
feel bad about it,” Ev said. “Even I don’t know what kind of god I’m going to
become.” All students of the Academy eventually had to choose the type of mortals
they would represent. Some, like Freya and Maya, chose to be gods of love,
while CiCi wanted to become a goddess of relaxation. Ev wasn’t sure how the
latter was going to work out, but it was her choice.

Maya’s
race turned positively red. “Stop it, CiCi. You know I get embarrassed when you
say such things.”

Grinning,
Ev said, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you were embarrassed of me.”

She
turned even redder. “You know that’s not true, Ev. You’re the most important
man in the world to me. You saved me from slavery. In fact…” Her face achieved
maximum redness. “I-I have to go!”

She
ran off down the hall. “Is she always like that?” Deep asked.

Ev
laughed. “She’s still not used to having a boyfriend. In fact, for a good chunk
of her life, she didn’t have any
friends. This is still very new to her. When I first got here, she was just
Belial’s puppet. She had trouble expressing—hell, understanding—her emotions. But after some more time passes, I
think she’ll have everything under control.”

“Assuming
the Asshole Three leave her alone,” Deep clarified.

Ev
sighed. “If they don’t, I’ll have to make
them.”

CiCi’s
face took on a look of concern. “If you plan on fighting them, you’ll need
help. For all their haughtiness, they’re both experienced and extremely
talented students. Just say the word, and I’ll be there to back you up.”

“Me,
too,” Deep said.

Sahara
nodded. “And me as well. I still don’t know Maya very well, but CiCi and the
others saved us in Stiftung. I owe her my life, and her battles are my
battles.”

“Thanks,
guys,” Ev said. “But hopefully that won’t be necessary. Maybe we can find a way
to avoid a fight with the Asshole Three.”

Or
so he told himself. But he knew deep down that the way things were going, a
physical confrontation with those upperclassmen was only a matter of time.
Still, some time away from them would do everyone a world of good (Maya
especially), and Lorntz Break provided just the escape they needed.

* * *

Ev returned to his dorm room to wait for
the next class. His copper-skinned, vest-wearing roommate (and future god of
money) from Chrichton, Jaysin Marx, greeted him as he entered. “How’d it go
t’day?” he asked in his Chrichton accent. That particular continent lay far to
the east, isolated from the rest of the world by an extremely long mountain
chain which ran the length of Narska.

Ev
threw up his hands in an exaggerated display of exasperation. “Just great.” He
told Jaysin about watching Freya figuratively pull the plug on the old woman,
and about their latest run-in with the Asshole Three.

“A
sorry lot, those three,” Jaysin said sympathetically.

Ev
decided to voice his concerns to his friend. “The way they keep harassing Maya,
I may have to do something, and soon.”

Jaysin
cautioned, “Better be careful around them, Ev. They’re the highest ranked—and
therefore most dangerous—students here. Not that you didn’t handle yourself
well in Stiftung, but those guys are in a class by themselves. They’ve mastered
just about everything in the textbooks.”

Ev
rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. In case you’ve forgotten,
I went up against a full-fledged god in the Tower of Babel.”

“Yeah,
and he immediately put a smoking hole in your chest. You were completely
helpless, and Professor Strong had to stop Belial. That about sum things up?”

“Look,
whatever. Strong said himself that if me and Maya hadn’t shown up when we did,
Belial would have finished him off. The point is, I survived and we saved the
day. Oh, and you left one thing out: Belial had a ridiculously powerful hammer
with which he put said hole in my chest. It wasn’t a fair fight by a long shot,
but I’m still here.” The hammer in question was Mjölnir, one of the Artifacts stored in the Tower
of Babel from the previous universe.

“You’re only still here because Maya was
able to perform healing on you in time. Otherwise, you’d be a corpse, mate,”
Jaysin reminded him. Just to show he wasn’t doing it out of spite, he gave Ev a
wide grin.

Shaking his head, Ev said, “There’s just
no winning with you today.”

“I’m only looking out for my friend. If
you do decide to take on the Arsehole
Three, give me a call first.”

“We live in the same room. I don’t have
to call you.”

“Enough with the semantics, mate. Just
let me know, and I’ll have your back.”

Ev chuckled. “You and everyone else around
here. The line to kick their asses is getting very long.”

* * *

Quandisa rummaged through the ancient
trunk in the castle’s cellar. She had to move quickly before Zero Grade found
her. On this occasion she wore a dark cloak instead of her usual skimpy attire.

Not
too long ago, she had been a proud member of the organization. However, during
the Stiftung Crisis she had fled following the deaths of her comrades at the
hands of the brutish Nephilim. She didn’t want to end up cooked alive like
Shinigami, or stomped into chunks of ice like Hera. She’d be lying if she said
she felt any real kinship with them; they were simply (former) associates of
hers. Still, their deaths had thoroughly demoralized her and she ran for it.
Desertion was a capital offense within Zero Grade, looked down on even worse
than outright betrayal as Belial had committed. She knew as soon as she ran
that her life was forfeit.

She
had spent the past several months moving from place to place in an attempt to
avoid being caught. She made sure to keep a low profile, not getting involved
in any incidents that might occur.

But
sentimentality had finally gotten the best of her. She returned to Zero Grade’s
castle in the Murnau Islands to retrieve a few keepsakes she had brought with
her from the previous universe. Fortunately, the place had really only been used
by her, Belial, Shinigami and Hera. With the rest of them dead, this was her
opportunity to get in and out unnoticed. Still, it was better not to dawdle.

“What
are you doing here?”

She
whirled around to see a figure at the top of the staircase, standing in the
doorway. Despite the low lighting provided by the torches on the walls, she
instinctively knew who it was. She would never forget him as long as she lived.
“Arcturus!”

The
stunningly handsome young man, with his long black bangs and chiseled body,
descended the staircase. He wore a dark t-shirt and matching pants. She
immediately ran and embraced him. They exchanged passionate kisses for a full
minute before he got to the business at hand. “You shouldn’t have come back
here.”

She
remembered her cowardice and looked away, ashamed. “I-I’m sorry. I just wanted
to get a few things.”

Arcturus
said, “Everyone in the organization has standing orders to either kill you on
sight or drag you before the Flawless Few so they can do it themselves.”

“I
know,” she said sadly. “But I’m so glad it was you who found me. You would
never turn me over to them. Wait—why are you here? We were the only ones who
ever used this place.”

Still
holding her, he explained, “After the rest of your team died, I decided to help
myself to the castle.”

She
looked around the empty basement. “Yes, I suppose we won’t be needing it anymore.”
An urgent thought suddenly occurred to her. “Come with me. We don’t need Zero
Grade. We can have the life we’ve always wanted.”

He
shook his head. “I can’t. My work with the organization isn’t done yet. I need
to stick with them for a little bit longer.”

She
grasped onto the hope that was being offered. “So, then…soon? We can be
together then?”

He
reached in and kissed her deeply. Because of this, she didn’t notice the
strange sensation in her chest at first. When he pulled back, however, she saw
the blade piercing her body. Arcturus had conjured a sword right through her
heart. She tried to cry out, Why? but
only blood emerged from her mouth.

He
looked at her with intense sadness. “I told you, you shouldn’t have come here.
They’re watching the place. If I let you leave here, they’ll kill me as well.”

* * *

Arcturus watched as Quandisa dropped to
the floor. He had known his best hope of killing her would be destroying her
heart, the most vulnerable part of a god’s body. And even though she was a
woman, she was still a full-fledged god. She would have put up quite the fight
if he hadn’t struck quickly.

She
stared up at him eyes full of shock. Under normal circumstances, he would
rather have been the one to die. However, with such a vital undertaking ahead
of him, he couldn’t afford to take any chances. Zero Grade had to be appeased
for the time being.

Soon, though, they
wouldn’t matter anymore. Once he got what he wanted, everything would be made
right again. “Don’t worry,” he said to the lifeless corpse of his lover. “I’ll
bring you back soon. Once I have that…”

* * *

Ev arrived at his least-favorite
class—Conjuring—dreading what would soon take place. That was because he sucked
at the skill. Everyone else around him could create kick-ass weapons. Ev,
however couldn’t. The only reason he had gotten this far was because his
conjuring skill technically existed. He could create ashtrays, cups and crude
utensils. That had carried him to this point. Unfortunately, if he didn’t
create a functional weapon or defensive item by the time of the final exam, he
would flunk the class. Some god he would make then.

He took his seat in
the middle of the room. The professor soon entered. Brandon Strong had been the
one to save Ev from attacks by Zero Grade when this all began and invited him
to enroll at the Academy, acknowledging his latent god-potential. Nevertheless,
he, too, was probably dreading Ev’s performance today.

Brandon
sat behind his desk. “As you all know, today is mid-terms. Those who pass
receive a qualifying grade and don’t have to take the class any further. Those
who fail…well, I’ll have the dubious honor of teaching you again after the
break.” Ev’s friends had all taken this class last year and passed with
relative ease. Ev himself had held off on taking it, realizing his own lack of
talent. Now, however, he couldn’t avoid it any longer.

Brandon
continued. “I will now call you up to the front of the class in alphabetical
order.”

The
first two students called up managed to conjure impressive-looking weapons that
functioned perfectly. Unfortunately, being a Bannen, it wasn’t long before he
got called up. He cursed his last name for coming so soon in the alphabet. Not
that it mattered, though; he knew his chances for pulling this off were slim.

“All
right, Ev,” Brandon said. “I trust you’ve been practicing?”

“Yes,
sir.” He neglected to mention the fact his practice hadn’t amounted to much.

“Well,
then, let’s see what you can do.”

Ev
held out his hands. He closed his eyes and visualized a sharp sword
materializing in his hands. At first nothing happened, and it looked like it
would be another failure. Gradually, though, something began to appear in his
grip. There was a handle at first, followed by a guard and then a blade
appeared.

He
rejoiced. “Yes! I did it! I…”

His
revelry was cut short, however, when he noticed the blade was warped and
wobbly. Somehow he had made it out of a rubber-like material. He just stared at
it in disbelief. Another failure, after all.

The
class got a good laugh out of this. Brandon simply shook his head and wrote
something down in his notebook. Something negative, no doubt. “Looks like I’ll
be seeing you again after the break, Ev.”

Ev
returned to his seat, dejected. How was he supposed to become a god if he
couldn’t do something as simple as conjuring?

After
class, Maya met him in the hall. “How’d it go? Did you pass?”

He
sighed. “’fraid not.”

She
hugged him. “Cheer up. You’ll get it. You just need to keep at it.”

He
looked away. “But what if I don’t get
it? What if I never get it?”

She
forced him to look her in the eyes. “You can’t think like that. You, Ev Bannen,
are going to get it. Tell me you’re going to get it.”

He
said weakly, “I’m going to get it.”

“Again.”

“I’m
going to get it.”

“Louder.”

“I’m
going to get it!”

Everyone
in the hall turned to look at him. Maya seemed satisfied. “Well, you made a
fool of yourself, but at least you got the point.”

“You’re
the one who made me do it.”

She
smiled. “Let’s not argue who made who do what. We’re going to your house
tomorrow, and we need to make sure we’re prepared. Do you have everything you
need?”

“Yeah,
I’m pretty well packed.”

“Me,
too. Remember—we leave in the morning. You want me to come to your dorm and get
you?”

“Nah,
I think I’ll be OK.”

“Good.
Be at the hangar by eight.”

Well,
he might still have had problems, but at least he wasn’t depressed by them at
the moment. Maya had succeeded in cheering him up.